The Shell Island Restoration project was designed and constructed to restore the integrity of the barrier island’s existing shoreline. The first phase, Shell Island East, restored the easterly lobe of the barrier island. The project required dredging of high-quality riverine sediments from the Mississippi River, pumping the material with more than 25,000 horsepower through upwards of 20 miles of dredge pipeline for the restoration of the beach, dune, and back barrier marsh of Shell Island. The Shell Island East phase restored 2.8 miles of the barrier island by adding 2.5 million cubic yards of sand, and revived 613 acres of lost habitat. The balance of the Shell Island barrier island was subsequently restored by GLDD under a second phase project, Shell Island West. Completed as part of the State of Louisiana’s berm-to-barrier island program, this project restored an eroded barrier island that now acts as a barrier against storm surge and helped to re-establish a protective habitat for the sensitive marshes in the Barataria Basin of Louisiana.
Diyar Al Muharraq
This project involved the excavation and placement of 80 million cubic meters of material for the construction of the Diyar al Muharraq island system in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The new island system comprises nearly 3,000 acres and will be used for real estate development. To this day, Diyar al Muharraq is one of the largest projects GLDD has ever completed.
Sand Island now provides a better foundation for its 138-year-old lighthouse. As a result, the lighthouse has critical protection from environmental elements.
